CHAPTER FIFTEEN
❝Dark Paradise❞
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"My bounty is as boundless as the sea,
My love as deep; the more I give to thee,
The more I have, for both are infinite."
I sat next to Eric, underneath the abandoned camp that once belonged to the careers. Now three of them were dead and one was on the run from a psychotic Moss. Everything seemed so chaotic and full of death besides my little bubble of bliss that I had put in place after the events of the feast. Next to me, Eric was quoting the ancient works of Romeo and Juliet - a play written centuries ago by someone called Shakespeare. I did not know much about the play besides the fact that it was a tragic tale of two lovers and seemingly fit perfectly to the current predicament that I was trapped in.
Looking up at Eric through my orange hair that obstructed my view of him, I quoted a simple line that I knew from the play. "For never was a story of more woe than that of Juliet and her Romeo."
A grimace appeared on Eric's face. "I don't know Alice, right now we could give the ancient star-crossed lovers a run for their money."
Reciprocating his pained expression, I shuffled closer to him, pressing my head into his left shoulder and wrapping my arms around his own. "I'm sorry for surviving."
A slight chuckle travelled down his body. "I'm sorry that you feel like that."
Furrowing my brows, I nudged Eric - hoping that the tiny bump would knock a whole lot of realisation into him. "Sorry that I feel like that? Seriously! There are only four of us left Eric, the odds may be in our favour but that isn't what we planned."
Eric bristled, his body growing rigid next to me as his voice replied with eerie coldness. "We could win, one of us at least."
"Eric." aghast, I recoiled a few inches away from him. I studied his eyes that were now pinned on my own. His sky blue eyes reflected with a hardened anger that looked unbreakable. It was many moments later that the anger shattered, dissolving into regret.
"I'm sorry Alice," Eric pulled me back into his arms, clearly wanting to wipe his darkened personality to the back of his mind. "Winning never seemed like a possibility until now. Of course I'm going to think about it if you or I could win."
"You wouldn't action your ideas... right?" Worriedly, I burrowed deep into Eric's arms until I could not get any closer.
"Of course not. A world without you would not be a world worth living in. Not even for a second." Eric whispered back. Lightly, he placed a kiss in my hair before reaching to my face, pulling my jaw towards him before lightly kissing my lips. Without a second thought I kissed him back, holding the tears at bay so the perfect moment would not be broken.
When Eric pulled away he lightly caressed my cheek as he smiled at me, his bright blue eyes filled with the same amount of love that he had looked at me with for almost his entire life. To myself, I thought about how much not just me but the entire country would miss his beautiful blue eyes. The world would be a duller place without Eric to brighten each day.
In just that short amount of time, the sun had fallen from high in the sky to hugging the horizon. Such rapid progression of the day had two purposes; to jumble our circadian rhythms so sleep would not come and also to bring the games to a fleeting close.
As the last rays of the once young daylight disappeared below the horizon, the Gamemakers wasted no time in displaying the fallen. The three careers; Jett, Crystal and Justin were quickly followed by Thorn. When the sky shooed away the fallen faces and the stars started to flicker, a small shiver raced up my spine.
"The finale is upon us." I whispered, closing my eyes to block out the world around me. Now that we were at the end, the final day, everything felt wrong. Now I was certain that I would finally look death straight in the eye. Today will be the day that I die.
"May the odds be ever in your favour." Eric quipped sarcastically, leaning backwards so he could lie on his back to study the manmade stars above us.
"I wonder what our doom will be?" I questioned, joining Eric on my back. "Most likely it will be Mutts but maybe they will leave us to our own devices. Imagine it they cut all sources of food, making the four of us starve. Then we would have a real Hunger Games on our hands."
Light chuckles escaped Eric's lips before he added in his own wager on doom. "I think they'll lure the other back to the Cornucopia before unleashing the Mutts upon us. So then all four of us have to work together at keeping the Mutts at bay while at the same time also attempting to end another tribute's life to save your own."
I was just about to agree with Eric when a shrill scream startled us. It came from the flats, where the river was probably and the scream no doubt belonged to Frankie.
"I guess the real games have just begun." Eric said through gritted teeth. Frankie then screamed again, this time it sounded closer. Frankie's screams were then joined by Moss's own gravelly shout of terror. It looked like Eric was right, the others were being brought back to the Cornucopia, where the whole thing started and it all shall end. A strangely poetic touch to the games.
Many moments passed as the others continued to scream, slowly they came closer and closer. It was when the ground started to grumble and the tree's started to sway that alarm coursed through me. I leaned forward, grabbing a sword that I had found earlier today. Beside me, Eric already had his trident and rope in his hands. Leaning up against a crate half full of apples was an unused crossbow. It was sleek, looked simple enough and if looks could kill I think I would be dead already. Quickly I reached out to grab the crossbow, just in time thankfully because mere moments later the clearing surrounding the Cornucopia was filled with my ending.
The Mutts had arrived.
They were bears, mud brown bears of various sizes that I had only heard of in folk tales. Up in the river regions of Four, Grizzly Bear's fished for salmon. Fisherman avoided the bears since they were known to be a bit on the vicious side of things. These bears were definitely vicious. They had long yellowing teeth with pointed tips, eyes that were cold with bloodlust, paws that could crush your skull. These bears may look typical but they were Mutts so of course they had that little extra something to make even more lethal. A dozen bears faced us, snarling and growling. In amongst the brown flurry of fur was the ash blonde hair of Moss and the lithe body of Frankie. Both were fighting tooth and nail to save their own skin, too busy to even bother to scream anymore.
"Should we help them?" I questioned Eric. Looking over to him, he was poised ready to fight, eyes ablaze with terror.
"We are about to be busy with our own fight." Of course Eric was right. The bears had spotted us and three were on a collision course for our tent. Eric charged out at them, obscenities poured from his mouth. While he took everything in full throttle I was the polar opposite, standing frozen in place as my line of vision focused on the ferocious teeth of the mutts. It did not surprise me when one of the sets of teeth found its way to my arm that I had outstretched in front of me.
"Ouch!" I hissed, snapping myself back to reality as I took in the fact that my arm had just become a snack for the humongous grizzly. "Get away!" I hissed, prying my arm free from its strong jaw. Blood seeped through my jacket and pain sizzled up my arm. The bear did not like me retaliating, it pinpointed me, charging ever closer. Instinct made me scramble out of the bears way, running towards the cornucopia just to escape the rancid breath of the Mutt.
I practically ran into the wall of the Cornucopia, flattening myself on the shiny surface. For the first time since coming into the games I noticed a small trail that winded up the cornucopia, a pathway to the top. It was too narrow for a bear but perfect for a tribute. Without hesitating I skidded up the path, every step made the breath of the bear grow fainter as I left it at the base. Once I made it to the top I fell to a halt. From here I could see the finale unfold. Below me was a bloodbath, the blood was mostly bear but the tributes had all spilled some of their own. Moss's once blonde hair was now tinted a rusty red, no doubt from the blood he had spit. Frankie was on the ground, hand in hand with a bear, her wounds looked too severe for her to last long. Eric, my Eric, was faring quiet well. He was tackling two bears at once, his trident aiding as a more powerful weapon than first thought. Back up here, where I was sitting, I had started trembling. Not trembling from the night air but trembling out of fear. Once more I had let my instinct take control of me. If I had succumbed to the bear, let it continue to nibble my arm then I would have been dead and my fear would be non-existent. By staying up here I would no doubt outlast the others down below but by staying here I was safe and free from the Mutts. Sighing, I flopped down on the shiny surface of the Cornucopia, closing my eyes to focus on the waging battle below.
Time seemed to lose cohesion as I laid there, doing nothing while the others did everything. Everything blurred into each other until something changed - the bear's stopped making noise. Everything was silent for a second before a dreaded boom of a cannon sounded. At this I shot up, my head tilted to the sky as I saw Frankie's face light up above me.
"Oh no, Oh no, Oh no." I shook my head, scrambling onto my feet, ignoring the pool of blood that my arm had created in my time laying down.
Quickly, I ran down the trail, shocked at the fact that no Grizzly bear remained, as if they vanished from the arena - which they probably did. In the light of the almost full moon I was two blonde heads glow against the blood stained grass. They were next to each other, leaning against the wall of the Cornucopia.
"Eric!" I wailed, racing over to the two boys. On my right was Eric, he was panting and his leg was losing blood rapidly. Next to him was Moss, he too was panting and he too was seriously injured.
"Alice," Eric whispered. "Are you alright?"
Swearing under my breath before replying, I nodded. "I am not hurt at all."
"That's great." Eric smiled for a moment before falling into a coughing fit. When it subsided I turned my head to face Moss.
"I need you to do something Moss."
Moss cracked his eyes opened, confusion filled his dark green eyes. "What on earth could I do?"
"Kill me." I still had the crossbow slung across my right shoulder. Shrugging it off I handed it to Moss.
"Alice!" Eric hissed.
"Not now." I silenced Eric before returning to Moss. "Kill me, don't let me suffer."
Moss studied me for quite a while until he shook his head. "I will not Alice because look at you," Stiffly he gestured his head towards me. "You are perfectly fine besides your arm and in no grave danger. Now look at myself and Eric, both seriously injured and close to death." Moss paused for a moment to clutch his leg, tears welled in the corner of his eyes. "You've won Alice. You have somehow won even though you have always been so adamant on dying."
Moss's words sunk into me, physically forcing me backwards and I came to the dark truth of what was happening. All the time through the arena I have planned and schemed ways to die. All had been in eyesight of becoming reality but one way or another I had survived.
"Alice." Eric's weak voice beckoned for me. "I'm sorry."
"Don't be!" I soothed, reaching out to smooth his hair. Eric was a bloodied mess, his leg was drenched in blood and his tan skin had become a balmy white. His usually vibrant eyes were now dull and his hair hung limply on his forehead.
"Will you stay with me?" Eric asked and I replied by sitting down properly next to him, taking his hands in my own. From my left, Moss watched on. He looked better off than Eric did, Moss had a lot more blood to lose. Taking pauses every so often, Eric decided that we wanted to speak. "Alice, if we did not get chosen for the games I was planning to ask you to the summer ball after the games are finished while we were still in town... If we hadn't come here... I would have married you at the first chance I got. We could have sailed the sea with our children, I always hoped that they would have flaming red hair like you."
"Stop it Eric." I tried to shush him, tears flowed freely from my eyes.
"After the games," Eric continued slowly. "I want you to go on with your life; don't let it stop just because I'm no longer there. You will need to comfort dad... I don't know how he'll take it." Eric stopped then, he was finding it hard to breathe, I could tell by how his chest rapidly rose and fell with each shallow breath.
"Eric..." I whispered, I took a hand out from his and ran it along his palmy cheek.
"Do I get one last request?" Eric managed to say, surprising me at how we was able to weld sarcasm into his voice.
"Of course."
"Kiss me." And with that I leant down to his face and kissed his chapped lips for a final time, taking in how it felt to have Eric warm and breathing. Slowly I parted from him, keeping close as I watched his eyes. Moment by moment they grew more dull until suddenly, with a final heaving breath, Eric left this mortal coil which was confirmed with the sound of his booming cannon.
Lifelessly, I burrowed my head into Eric's chest which was now slowly losing its warmth. I let myself cry for a long time until I got reminded that there was still one more tribute with me.
"Alice," It was Moss's turn to struggle to get out every word. "I'm sorry."
"Let me die Moss, let me die." I wept, opening my eyes to see Moss who was so white that he practically glowed.
"I can barely breathe, let alone hold a weapon to kill you." A smirk that seemed to always be on Moss's face was beaming down at me. "If you sat up and got away from your dead boyfriend's body then maybe you might be able to see this beautiful sunrise."
"What? The sun only set an hour ago, if that." I slowly sat up but dared not remove my hands from Eric's own.
"It's the Hunger Games honey, they control everything." Moss chuckled darkly.
"I never thought that it would be us two in the final two." I frowned, staring out into the beautiful sunrise that painted the sky in warming hues of oranges and yellows.
"Definitely not what I expected." Moss shrugged. "Can I ask you a favour?"
"Why not?"
"Shoot me with that crossbow. I still have live left in me, a few hours probably and I have a feeling that the Gamemakers want a victor as soon as possible."
"A mercy killing?" I raised an eyebrow at the boy. Of course Moss was strong and his wound had settled down, blood hardly flowed from him anymore.
"A mercy killing." Moss agreed.
I wanted to argue that he had never done the same for me so why should I do it for him but then again I did not want Moss to suffer. I wanted to escape the arena and Moss wanted to escape life. With a silent nod I reached out to the crossbow and loaded it, aiming it straight into Moss's chest.
"I'm sorry Moss."
"You are doing me a favour Alice." Moss smiled, his moss green eyes lit up with joy for one last time. "You know, I am truly sorry about what you have to now face. I should have killed you when I first found you and maybe everything you have been different."
"It was a pleasure knowing you Moss." With that I sent the arrow flying straight into Moss's heart. Seconds later Moss's cannon sounded, signalling the twenty-third death in the arena which meant that one one remained.
That person was me.
I was the victor of the thirty-fourth Hunger Games.
The Panem anthem filled the arena, quickly followed by Claudius Templesmith's voice. "Ladies and Gentlemen, please congratulate Alice Stone of district four, the Victor of the Thirty-Fourth Hunger Games!"
The sound of hovercraft's approaching made me stand up. The sudden rise proved just all too much for me to handle so instead of standing proud, I fell to the ground, fainting, welcoming a temporary world of blackness.